I watched the Champions League final the other day when it struck me: I’m basically watching millionaires all the time.

The players are millionaires, the coaches are millionaires, the club owners are millionaires. It’s surreal.

This week I watched John Wick Ballerina and, again, there’s Keanu Reeves, who is a millionaire, and Ana de Armas, who is as well.

Yesterday I heard about Trump and Musk fighting. They are not millionaires, they are billionaires!

As I’m writing this, I’m watching the Rock am Ring live stream, a music festival in Germany. Weezer is playing. These guys are all millionaires.

I don’t know what to make of it. It’s a strange realization, but one that feels worth sharing.

I could go down the road of how this fixation on elites distracts us from the people nearby, but that’s not quite it. What interests me more is how normalized this has become.

Maybe it’s just the power law in action: a few rise to the top, and we amplify them by watching. But most people in every field aren’t millionaires. We just don’t see them.

You’re on a tiny blog by a tiny man and if you made it this far, I appreciate you. It looks as if you care about the little stories as well.

If you’re anything like me, you’re not only enjoying the little stories, you’re actively seeking them out – but there’s so few of it nowadays. Yes, there are still places where people share their stories, but you need to know where to look.

If anything, we all should share more. Write about the little things, the everyday moments, the people you meet, the things you care about. Don’t live anybody else’s life!

Rivers Cuomo, Weezer’s lead singer, once wrote:

My motivation is much different now than it was then: then I was terribly discontent and dreaming of being a classical composer, a writer, or basically anything that I wasn’t; now I just want to enjoy my life and do the responsible thing—graduate.

That’s from his Letter For Readmission To Harvard (2005).

Nobody forced him to go back to Harvard after so many years. He was a freaking millionaire rock star by then.

And yet, he did.

He stopped pretending and started living.

We don’t have to keep watching other people’s lives.

Live your own.